Chapter 3 #2
"Yes," I whispered against her ear. "If I was hunting you, Mouse, you’d already be caught."
She shivered, a full-body tremor that I felt against my chest.
"Jack! Get in here!"
Silas’s voice boomed from down the hall, shattering the moment.
I pulled back, cursing internally. The wolf howled in frustration. I scrubbed a hand over my face, forcing the human mask back into place.
"Bedroom. Now," I said, grabbing her hand again.
"Buying me dinner first is usually the protocol," she muttered, though her voice was shaky.
"Funny."
I dragged her down the hall to the last door on the left. My room.
It was the only room in the house with a reinforced steel door and a deadbolt—necessary for the nights when the moon was full and the wolf was too loud.
I unlocked it and shoved the door open. The room was sparse. A massive king-sized bed with dark gray sheets, a desk covered in playbooks, and a wall of weights. It smelled exclusively of me. Cedar, musk, and cold.
Eloise walked in, looking around with wide eyes. She looked so small in here. So out of place. It made my chest ache.
"Sit," I pointed to the bed. "Don't touch anything."
"You’re very bossy for someone who owns one pillow," she observed, sitting gingerly on the edge of the mattress.
I ignored her, moving to the closet to grab a duffel bag. I started throwing things in—sweats, t-shirts, tactical gear, a first aid kit.
"Where are we actually going, Jack?" she asked, her voice losing the sarcastic edge and returning to fear. "You said a safe location. What does that mean?"
I paused, holding a black hoodie in my hands. I turned to look at her. She was sitting on my bed, surrounded by my scent, looking like a sacrifice I wasn't allowed to touch.
"My family... my kind... we have places," I said carefully. "Cabins. Off the grid. No cell service. No neighbors."
"Your kind?" She raised an eyebrow. "You mean hockey players?"
I didn't answer. I couldn't lie to her again. Not in here.
Silas burst into the room, closing the door behind him. He looked serious. The party-boy mask was gone.
"Perimeter is compromised," Silas said, not bothering to lower his voice. "Miller says he saw tracks near the east woods. Big tracks. Not human."
I stiffened. "They’re probing the defenses."
"They know she’s here, Jack," Silas said, glancing at Eloise. "Or they know you’re here. Either way, the Hive isn't safe. You need to get her to the Den. Now."
"The Den?" Eloise asked, standing up. "What is the Den?"
"It’s a cabin," Silas said, giving her a tight smile. "About forty miles north. Deep woods. It’s... fortified."
"Fortified against what?" she demanded. "Stalkers? Gangs?"
Silas looked at me. "She doesn't know?"
"Not yet," I said. "Pack the truck. I’ll bring her down the back stairs."
Silas nodded and left.
I zipped the bag and threw it over my shoulder. I walked over to Eloise. She was standing her ground, her arms crossed over her chest.
"I’m not going anywhere until you tell me the truth," she said. "Physics-defying strength. Glowing eyes. 'Tracks that aren't human.' 'Your kind.' What is going on, Jack?"
I looked down at her. I could smell the determination coming off her in waves. She was terrified, but she was brave.
I stepped closer, until my boots touched hers. I reached out and cupped her face in my hand. Her skin was soft, so soft it felt like silk against my calloused palm.
"I can't tell you here," I said softly. "It’s not safe. But I promise you, Eloise... I won't let anything hurt you. Not them. And not me."
She stared up at me, searching my eyes. "Why?" she whispered. "Why do you care? We’ve never spoken before tonight."
"We have," I said, my thumb stroking her cheekbone. "You just don't remember."
Her brow furrowed. "What?"
"We speak every time you step on the ice," I said, a truth slipping out sideways. "I watch you."
Her breath caught. "You... you watch me?"
"Every morning. 5:00 AM. Before practice," I confessed. "I sit in the dark in the upper deck. I watch you skate."
"Why?"
"Because," I leaned down, my forehead resting against hers. "It’s the only time the noise in my head stops."
It was the most vulnerable thing I had ever said to another living soul.
Eloise let out a shaky breath, her hands coming up to rest tentatively on my chest. She could feel my heart pounding—a slow, heavy, sledgehammer rhythm.
"Jack," she breathed.
We were close. Too close. The air between us was crackling. I could taste her breath. I could feel the magnetic pull of the bond urging me to close the gap, to bite her lip, to mark her.
Kiss her, the wolf urged. Take her.
I tilted my head. Her eyelids fluttered shut. My lips brushed hers—a featherlight touch, barely a ghost of a kiss.
Bam.
The door flew open.
"We got a problem, Cap!" It was Miller again, breathless and panicked. "Cops are at the front gate. Vance called them. He says you kidnapped his daughter."
I pulled back from Eloise as if I’d been scalded. The loss of contact was a physical pain.
Eloise blinked, disoriented, her lips swollen and red just from the proximity.
"My dad called the cops?" she whispered.
"We have to go," I said, grabbing her hand. The softness was gone. The soldier was back. "Back stairs. Now."
"Jack, if the police are here, I should just go to them," she said, pulling back. "They can protect me."
I turned on her, my eyes flashing. I couldn't hide it this time. The amber burned through the brown.
"The police can't stop a Copperhead wolf, Eloise!" I roared, the secret tearing its way out of my throat. "They’ll tear the squad car apart like a sardine can to get to you!"
She froze. She stared at my eyes. The glowing gold.
"Wolf?" she whispered.
"Move," I ordered.
I didn't give her a choice this time. I scooped her up, throwing her over my shoulder like a sack of flour. She gasped, pounding on my back, but I was already moving.
We were running out of time. The game was over. The hunt had begun.
Eloise
I was bouncing against a wall of muscle that felt more like stone than flesh. The world was upside down—the floorboards of the hallway blurring past, the stairs rushing up to meet us.
"Put me down, you neanderthal!" I shouted, hitting his lower back. It was like hitting a tree trunk.
"Shut up, Mouse," he growled, his hand clamping firmly onto the back of my thigh to steady me. His grip was possessive, huge, his fingers digging into the wool of my coat.
He kicked open a door at the end of the hall that led to a narrow, servants' staircase. We plunged into darkness.
My mind was reeling. Wolf. He had said Wolf.
And his eyes.
I had seen them. Up close. In his bedroom. They weren't contacts. They weren't a trick of the light. They were bioluminescent.
I watch you skate. It’s the only time the noise stops.
My heart hammered against my ribs, a chaotic mix of terror and a strange, blooming warmth that I couldn't squash. He had been watching me? The Monster of Ironwood watched me practice?
He burst out of the back door of the house, the cold night air slapping me in the face. The music from the party was muffled here, replaced by the sound of sirens wailing in the distance, getting closer. Blue and red lights flashed through the trees at the front of the property.
Jack didn't stop. He sprinted toward the truck, parked in the shadows of the garage. He dumped me onto my feet by the passenger door, his breathing not even elevated.
"Get in," he commanded.
I looked at the flashing lights. I looked at him.
He was wild. His hair was messy, his jaw locked, his eyes scanning the treeline with a terrifying intensity. He looked like danger. He looked like ruin.
But when he looked at me, there was terror in those gold eyes. Not for him. For me.
"Please," he said. It wasn't a command. It was a beg. "Trust me."
I looked at the safety of the police lights. Then I looked at the dark woods where the "not human" tracks were.
I made my choice.
I climbed into the truck.
Jack slammed the door, vaulted into the driver’s seat, and gunned the engine. We tore out of the back driveway, spraying gravel and snow, disappearing into the black throat of the forest just as the police cruisers pulled up to the front door.
I looked over at him. His hands were gripping the wheel at ten and two. His profile was illuminated by the dashboard lights.
"You have exactly one hour to explain why you have glowing eyes," I said, my voice trembling but firm. "Or I am jumping out of this moving vehicle."
Jack let out a long breath, his shoulders dropping an inch. He reached across the console, his hand hovering for a moment before he covered mine on my lap. His hand engulfed mine completely. He was burning up.
"One hour," he agreed, his voice rough. "Then you can run if you want to."
He squeezed my hand.
"But I’m not going to let you get far."
We sped north, leaving the world of rules and laws behind, heading straight into the wild. And for the first time in my life, I didn't want to be perfect. I wanted to see what happened when the ice cracked.